Open Your Heart

Posted on September 19, 2019 by billtonnis

Forgiveness is the way to freedom.

(Listen to my song “Come to Jesus” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Luke 7:36-38

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.

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Jesus seems to draw everyone to him…the “in” crowd and the “out” crowd.

Can you imagine the scandal when the “sinful” woman seems to invite herself into the Pharisee’s home?

The Pharisee was a religious leader who would have looked upon this woman with scorn.

She then initiates a very intimate action with Jesus…bathing his feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them…and anointing them with ointment.

What a tender spectacle!

The Pharisee reacts with indignation at the woman’s actions…and can’t believe Jesus allows it.

The woman has already repented her ways…and thus was able to show great love for Jesus whom she perceived as a holy man.

Jesus then states, “Her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

The Pharisee, in his self-righteousness, is unable to see his sinfulness and so doesn’t believe he needs forgiveness.

Thus, he shows little love.

Jesus seems to say that the more you are forgiven…the more you love.

Simply being a stickler for following the rules…will not make you more loving.

What do you need to be forgiven for…and who do you need to forgive?

Let down your guard.

Receive God’s love and forgiveness…and then freely pass it on.

Come to Jesus…and have no fear!

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Listen to the song of the day “Come to Jesus” on the Live to Love album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Everything Is Beautiful

Posted on September 18, 2019 by billtonnis

Be your unique self with gusto and glee.

(Listen to my song “Show Me…Me” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Luke 7:33-35

“For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

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You can’t try to please everyone.

As a matter of fact…you aren’t really called to please anyone but God.

And you please God by pleasing your true self.

When you live as your authentic self…you are just being your most natural self.

Then you will, by nature, be cooperating in the building of the kingdom of God in this time and place.

Each of us will be called in unique ways.

You may be similar to John the Baptist…who “came neither eating food nor drinking wine”…and may be accused of being “possessed by a demon.”

You may freely eat and drink…and hang around with the wrong crowd…and may be called a “glutton and a drunkard” – or worse.

What a beautiful hodgepodge of people we should be!

As the old song says, “Everything is beautiful…in its own way.”

What does your true self look like?

What is your deepest, truest self’s desire?

Follow your interests, follow your passions and enjoy the experience…but always do so with integrity and be guided by loving God and your neighbor as yourself.

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Listen to the song of the day “Show Me…Me” on the Listen to Your Heart album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Restorative Justice

Posted on September 17, 2019 by billtonnis

When justice is tempered with compassion…transformation is possible.

(Listen to my song “Mercy Reigns” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Psalm 101:1-2

I sing of mercy and justice; to you, LORD, I sing praise. I study the way of integrity.

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We all know that we need justice.

No one wants injustice or chaos.

But justice without mercy is not the answer.

We need justice that both protects society and at the same time tries to rehabilitate and restore those who break the law.

Retributive justice leaves the offender in ruins.

As people of God, we need to recognize the dignity of all human beings…even those who do wrong.

God loves all people…and we are called to do the same.

Jesus pointedly tells us to “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44).

God’s justice is restorative.

It is meant to return the offender to wholeness.

It takes great patience and integrity.

One of the definitions of integrity is: “The state of being whole and undivided.”

Two synonyms are “togetherness” and “solidarity.”

Look at how Jesus dealt with the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11).

He did not condemn her…showing her mercy by creatively heading off her execution that the letter of the law demanded.

But he also told her clearly that she must change her ways…and to “sin no more.” 

It is not easy to be both just and compassionate…but our Christian calling demands it.

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Listen to the song of the day “Mercy Reigns” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Reach Out

Posted on September 16, 2019 by billtonnis

We are all connected in the creative energy of God’s Love.

(Listen to my song “You’ll Lead Me” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Psalm 28:2

Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.

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We all need a helping hand.

The myth of rugged individualism and the “self-made-man” (“man”, of course, because the terminology sprung from a male dominated society) leads many men to a lonely and desperate place.

I was conditioned by the culture I grew up in that as a man I could not appear vulnerable but had to put on the front of complete confidence.

Any sign of weakness was forbidden.

I’m sure women also suffer from the false belief that asking for help is a sign of failure.

We all need help.

No one makes it by going alone.

Everyone gets help on the way to success.

And when you need help, as the psalmist states today, ask for it!

Cry out to God!

Surrender to a Higher Power, because, after all, God is Love (1 John 4:8).

And Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8)!

Many people today are in need of a compassionate helping hand.

Perhaps that hand…is yours?

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Listen to the song of the day “You’ll Lead Me” on the Listen to Your Heart album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Give Thanks

Posted on September 13, 2019 by billtonnis

We are receiving blessings upon blessings through Grace.

(Listen to the song of the day “The Way You Are” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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1 Timothy 1:12-13

I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.

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St. Paul had reason to be grateful.

He was indeed a blasphemer and the chief persecutor of Christians.

He admits he was an “arrogant man.”

But instead of punishment…he received mercy.

That is what transformed him.

It was in his unworthiness that he was called by Christ…not in his perfection.

God’s justice was not retributive but restorative.

When he received God’s unconditional love in a flash of light while on the road to Damascus…he was overwhelmed by just how wrong he had been in his zealous persecution of Christians.

He became one of the most zealous followers of Christ…one of the most zealous purveyors of God’s love…and his ministry continues to touch many nearly two-thousand years after his death.

How has God treated you mercifully?

How will you pay it forward?

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Listen to the song of the day “The Way You Are” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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The Way

Posted on September 12, 2019 by billtonnis

The path of Jesus is non-violent justice.

(Listen to my song “Mercy Reigns” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Luke 6:27-28

“To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

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How counter this statement is to human nature to expect such behavior!

Jesus seems so unreasonable.

But this is Jesus…and it’s one of his direct commands to his followers.

It’s also almost completely ignored and practically never mentioned by his followers because it demands so much.

It would mean that we have to change.

We would have to stop scapegoating…as in laying the blame on someone else or some other group so we can feel morally superior.

If Jesus’ directive was followed…the world would change.

This doesn’t mean we have to roll over and allow unjust systems to continue to operate and those who do evil to continue to do so.

We can work for change…but while we’re doing that…we can remain non-violent.

We can be compassionate.

This is a hard path but it is the path Christ calls us to follow.

It is a way of life…which was why his very first followers were called “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9).

It starts with you and me.

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Listen to the song of the day “Mercy Reigns” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Dying and Rising

Posted on September 11, 2019 by billtonnis

Letting go of things that won’t last…opens us to life with no end.

(Listen to my song “Glorify You with Me” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Colossians 3:3-4

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

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Each of us concocts a false self.

It seems to be a necessary part of life.

We need to build an ego in order to make sense of the structures we live in.

That ego tends to create a bunch of masks for us to wear so we can fit in and play a role in society.

Our true selves can only be found if we die, in a sense, to the ego-generated self.

When we are able to let go of all the delusions and illusions…all the things we thought would make us happy…what is left is the unique child of God that each of us is at our core.

Then…you will not only be living as your true self but you will be reflecting Christ.

This is what St. Paul is getting at in today’s scripture.

He also put it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:19-20).

Dying and rising is a part of our everyday lives.

As we live our lives…we must die to our false self and all its attachments so that our true self can rise.

Then we can live the life of service that we were meant to live.

This would truly give glory to God!

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Listen to the song of the day “Glorify You with Me” on the Give Praise and Thanks album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Be Here Now

Posted on September 10, 2019 by billtonnis

May we all practice the ministry of healing presence to others.

(Listen to my song “There Is Three” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Luke 6:19

Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

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“Power came forth from him and healed them all.”

Wow! Can you imagine what this was like?

Jesus could heal people.

Now…think about this: Jesus said we would do even greater works than he did!

“Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

Through prayer…and also through other special gifts that many of us might unknowingly possess…we can also be healers or help facilitate healing for others.

I know through experience that we can help others heal by simply being a loving and accepting presence.

Hundreds of years ago…the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade termed it the “sacrament of the present moment.”

The healing this brings can be on many levels.

How will you know…unless you believe…and then try it?

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Listen to the song of the day “There Is Three” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Whole Making

Posted on September 9, 2019 by billtonnis

The law of love restores people.

(Listen to my song “May I Be Light” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Luke 6:7

The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.

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Another lesson from Jesus in today’s scripture as to why sometimes laws must be broken when love demands it.

Here…we see the religious leaders trying to catch Jesus breaking a Sabbath law that prohibited doing any work on that day.

The law was meant to show people the importance of setting aside a day for God alone.

In the midst of them gathered in the synagogue on that Sabbath day…there was a man described as having a “withered hand”.

Jesus saw what the Pharisees were doing…trying to set a trap to see if he would cure the man and break the law.

That’s when Jesus said, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it? (Luke 6:9)”

Love should always be the main guideline we use to determine our actions.

What would be the action to take for the greatest good?

To black-and-white, either-or thinkers like the Pharisees…this does not compute!

You have to be able to see and think non-dualistically to understand.

You have to be open to “both-and.”

You can both uphold laws and break them when love demands it.

We are called to follow Jesus in being the light of Love when true justice demands compassion.

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Listen to the song of the day “May I Be Light” on the Listen to Your Heart album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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Transformation Required

Posted on September 6, 2019 by billtonnis

How is the Spirit asking each of us to change?

(Listen to my song “Take the Road Less Traveled” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Luke 5:37-38

“No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.”

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Sometimes the old structures need to be revamped.

Jesus is telling us in today’s scripture that sometimes ‘We’ve always done it this way’ just doesn’t work anymore.

When humans discovered that the Earth wasn’t flat and that civilization on planet Earth wasn’t all there was…it required a shift in our whole understanding of life.

It turns out that the observable radius of the entire universe is actually nearly 50 billion light-years. And by the way…each light-year is nearly six-trillion miles.

How’s that for BIG?

The theology that was inspired in human brains that believed the earth was flat…is probably in need of an upgrade.

Just as the field of medicine has evolved…so must all disciplines based on new information.

What is God doing?

And what do we mean when we say that three letter word, G-o-d?

The Spirit is still alive and creating!

There are many new ideas from brilliant minds as science and religion intertwine.

Let us be open to new ways and new structures.

God is so much more than we could ever define…and yet may be as simple and profound as what 1 John 4:8 states: “God is love.”

How is this Love beyond love asking us to grow and to respond in this time…and this place?

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Listen to the song of the day “Take the Road Less Traveled” on the Live to Love album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!

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